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Rutgers coach Kyle Flood: "I will always be grateful" to Tim Pernetti

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Rutgers coach Kyle Flood said he will always be indebted to former athletic director Tim Pernetti for giving him his first head coaching job. Pernetti resigned on Friday in the wake of the Mike Rice scandal.
(John Munson/The Star-Ledger)

Former Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti didn't have to look far to find a replacement when Greg Schiano abruptly left as football coach on Jan. 27, 2012. He turned to long-time assistant and offensive line coach Kyle Flood, despite Flood's absence of head coaching experience.

For that, Flood said on Saturday, he will "always be grateful to him for that."

"And what will always be most special to me is that he gave me an opportunity to be the head football coach where he went to school," Flood said following Rutgers' intrasquad scrimmage at High Point Solutions Stadium. "I know how Tim feels about Rutgers University and it's a special place to him, so for him to entrust this program, a program that he was a part of, to me as my first head coaching job I'll always be grateful to him for that."

Running back Savon Huggins, acting as the team spokesman, called Pernetti's resignation "kind of heartbreaking for us."

"It was unfortunate that had to happen," Huggins said. "It does (stink). He was a great guy to us. We loved him. He was one of us, kind of with the team. He was always there. He encouraged us. He was there at practice.

"It just (stinks) that he's not around any more."

Flood said he wasn't sure if he would be consulted during the process to select the next athletic director, although Schiano, then-men's basketball coach Fred Hill and women's basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer met with AD candidates when Pernetti was hired in 2009.

"I think those decisions are usually made above the coaches on a campus and in the athletic department," Flood said. "But I think what I've found is you do end up being asked questions and you give whatever impact you can at that point."